Sunday, January 13, 2013

I had no intention of writing about this year’s
Baseball Hall of Fame voting. None. Zip, zilch, zero. Felt it was already extensively
covered elsewhere, and the comments on other articles I’ve seen approach the
insanity that has only been replicated at the bottom of CNN/FoxNews articles
about the recent presidential election. Figured I’d find a much better way to
spend my time. But then the unthinkable happened; not only did the Baseball
Writers Association of America not elect a single candidate to the Hall this
year, they also allowed Kenny Lofton to fall completely off the ballot. So with
an equal combination of frustration, anger and reluctance, I approached the
keyboard late this week to at least get my thoughts down on “paper,” submitted
for the world to see. If you’re completely over the Hall debate and have
absolutely no interest in discussing or reading about this anymore, I totally
understand. Good news is you’re still getting a Lazy one this week, and I’m
saving the Hall stuff for the very end so you can pull the ripcord before that
point if you’d like. We’re still going to have a nice Sunday chat about Trevor
Bauer, Spring Training, and even a little Jeanmar Gomez thrown in for good
measure. So whether you’re in for the whole show this week or not, here’s a
meandering effort for you to digest with your morning coffee, fresh waffles and
crispy bacon on this unseasonably warm Lazy Sunday…

Newly-acquired starting pitcher Trevor Bauer has
already had himself a busy 2013. First, he had his new club’s big-league
skipper and GM visit him in Texas to have a chat and observe his unique
training regime. As if that weren’t stressful enough, the a player who is shy
and quiet by his own admission flew to Cleveland to take part in the Indians
winter development program, and as a result was put through his paces by the
assembled host of media in his first interviews for his new baseball city. As I’ve
indicated previously both in this space and on Twitter, I’m all-in on Trevor
Bauer and am really looking forward to watching him pitch in an Indians
uniform. But part of the reason the Indians were able to acquire the talented
youngster was his perceived “weirdness” in the Arizona clubhouse. It got to the
point where Bauer actually contacted his D-Backs teammates in the offseason to
ask them what he did to rub them the wrong way. So this initial interaction
with the cantankerous Cleveland media had the potential to be ugly, or at the
very least awkward. Judging by the articles that have been coming out, the
complete opposite occurred. Both Anthony
Castrovice and Jordan
Bastian put out their usual excellent pieces on Bauer, and
both had interesting and good things to say about the 21-year old righty. I
wrote about my thoughts on Bauer’s issues with the Diamondbacks in
a previous Lazy Sunday, so I’m not going to extensively
rehash them here. But if you’d like to see some of the…interesting pregame
activity that Bauer has become known for, there’s a video embedded into both
Castro and Bastain’s articles that are linked above.

Bauer is a bright kid, the son of an engineer who is
interested in not only the results but in the raw mechanics of pitching. He’s
come right out to say that he’s been somewhat shy all his life, and teammates throughout
the years have sometimes mistaken that shyness for arrogance. He’s clearly
bothered by that impression, and it seems like he’s really taken steps to
identify and mitigate those issues. The bottom line is that if Bauer comes out
and pitches effectively, then his personality quirks, unique pre-game and
pre-inning warm-up routine will become “colorful” and “fun.” If he struggles,
then people will question whether he “needs” to throw long-toss, or crow-hop to
fire in his first warm-up toss between innings. I’ll rely on the classic
baseball film Bull Durham here, as Crash Davis made his point to Nuke LaLoosh
about success allowing for a little extra freedom to be different:

“Your shower shoes have fungus on them. You'll
never make it to the bigs with fungus on your shower shoes. Think classy,
you'll be classy. If you win 20 in the show, you can let the fungus grow back
and the press will think you're colorful. Until you win 20 in the show, however,
it means you’re a slob”

This also serves to highlight the Indians
much-heralded Winter
Development Program, the brainchild of Indians team
president Mark Shapiro 18 years ago. The program serves to acclimate some of
the top prospects in the organization to the city of Cleveland, Progressive
Field, major league training staffs and facilities and of course, dealing with
the media. The players that have gone through the program in the past have
always given it rave reviews, and it really makes a difference in preparing the
prospects to move up the organizational ladder. This year, the players will
have an opportunity to interact with GM Chris Antonetti and Terry Francona, and
featured speakers will include ESPN’s Buster Olney and…wait for it…Ohio State
football coach Urban Meyer. Meyer was actually a pretty good baseball player in
his youth, having been drafted out of his Ashtabula high school in the 13th
round by the Braves back in 1982. Meyer played just two years of professional
baseball, never making it out of Rookie ball and posting a career OPS of just
.585 in 110 at bats. So Meyer’s presentation will hopefully be more
motivational than batting practice. Participating in the program this year are
1B Jesus Aguilar, RHP Shawn Armstrong, C/1B Yan Gomes, RHP Preston Guilmet, RHP
Trey Haley, LHP T.J. House, OF Tyler Holt, SS Francisco Lindor, RHP Fabio
Martinez, OF Carlos Moncrief, SS Ronny Rodriguez, RHP Danny Salazar, LHP Gio
Soto, and SS Tony Wolters. All of those players are going to appear in the top
half of my upcoming prospect countdown. Some are still quite a ways away from
the MLB roster, but all will benefit from the knowledge and experience gained
in the program this offseason.

In a relatively minor deal earlier this week, the Indians
dealt pitcher Jeanmar Gomez to the Pittsburgh Pirates in return for outfield
prospect Quincy Latimore. Gomez was designated for
assignment to make room for outfielder Nick Swisher, and became expendable
after the Brett Myers signing. The soon to be 25-year old Gomez went 5-8 with a
5.96 ERA in 90 2/3 IP for the Indians last year, and has a career WHIP of 1.510
in 206 2/3 big league innings. Gomez is probably most known for throwing a
perfect game for AA Akron, and has the upside of a #5 starter in the big
leagues. A switch to the NL might help his numbers, but the raw talent just
isn’t there for Gomez to be anything more than a rotation filler in the Show.
He’s out of options, so if he doesn’t make the Pirates 25-man roster out of
spring training then he’ll have to be exposed to waivers again in order to be
assigned to Pittsburgh’s minor league system. So if I were Gomez, I wouldn’t
exactly start house hunting in the Steel City just yet.

Latimore (not Lattimer)
was the Pirates 4th round pick in 2007 out of a North Carolina high
school. Last year in his age 23-season, Latimore hit .252/.321/.433 with 15 HR,
71 RBI and 10 SB for AA Altoona. He was repeating the level, and did show a lot
of growth from 2011 by improving on his average, OBP, SLG, RBI, SB, BB and cut
down his strikeouts from 140 in 2011 to 105 in 2012. I’d be lying if I told you I knew anything
about Latimore prior to this week, so I perused some Pirates blogs to get a
flavor of their thoughts on the trade. No one seemed to broken up over losing
him, calling him an organizational player and criticizing his approach.
Hopefully the drop in strikeouts from 2011 to last year was a trend rather than
a one-year aberration, but I’m not exactly penciling Latimore in as the Indians
LF of the future. I’d expect him to start in AA Akron next year but have a
chance to progress to AAA Columbus fairly quickly if he can get a hot start out
of the gates. He’s got intriguing power potential, but will need to cut down on
the strikeouts to turn the raw power into more consistent game power.

One of the most exciting days of the year for me is
the day I book my annual Spring Training trip. Earlier this week I scheduled my
flight, rental car and hotel for Goodyear, and will be down in sunny Arizona
from March 21-26 (departing 67 days from today…not that I’m counting). If
you’ve never been, I highly recommend it as it’s one of my all-time favorite
experiences as a baseball fan. I’ve been three years in a row now, so this
upcoming March will by my fourth trip in as many years. There’s as much free
baseball as you want if you’re interested in the minor league games, and the
lawn seats in the outfield for the MLB games are cheap and plentiful. If anyone
else is going to be down during the week I’m there, let me know and we can meet
for a pop or two during or after a game.

As promised, we waited till the end to delve into
the Hall talk. By its very nature the Hall debate is an extremely subjective
one. A player can be a grizzled sportswriter’s Hall of Famer but a
sabermatrician’s replacement player and vice versa. Setting aside the Jack Morris/Tim
Raines debate for now, I’d like to put one statement out there that I think
everyone can agree on; the Baseball Hall of Fame exists to commemorate and
record baseball history. There are some players, most notably “Shoeless” Joe
Jackson and Pete Rose, who have been banned from baseball for their actions and
have been declared ineligible for inclusion into the hallowed grounds of
Cooperstown. While there’s debate over whether or not those two players should
be eligible, the fact is they are not and no one is allowed to vote for them.
With the recent attention (note; not recent USE) on performance enhancing drugs
in baseball, there’s another debate raging between sportswriters and fans, this
one focusing on whether or not players who have been conclusively linked to the
use of performance enhancing drugs should be elected into the Hall of Fame
based on their on-field accomplishments. Even worse, there’s a debate as to
whether players not conclusively linked to PEDs, but who played in the “PED
era” should be voted into the Hall of Fame. This hypocritical self-righteousness
of the writers voting for the Hall this year has resulted in zero players
reaching the 75% threshold necessary for induction.

Here’s where I come down on the debate (if you
haven’t already figured it out); I think that anyone not banned from baseball
should be eligible for the Hall of Fame based on their on-field
accomplishments. Any player who is conclusively linked to or has admitted to
PED use who was good enough on the field to be voted into the Hall should have
his PED use appropriately reflected on his HoF plaque, right below his batting
average, home runs and on-base percentage. If a player is elected and PED
evidence comes to light after the election, just appropriately alter the plaque
after the fact. Barry Bonds played the game of baseball, and there’s an
argument to be made that he played it better than anyone else, ever. Barry
Bonds not having a plaque in the HoF does not change that. He should be in
there, with his numbers and PED use accurately reflected. So should Roger
Clemens, Mark McGwire, Rafael Palmerio and others. The baseball writers,
commissioner, owners and fans didn’t seem overly concerned about PED use when
offense (and revenue) was way up and baseballs were flying out of the park at a
record pace. Now everyone wants to step up and act like this was the worst
thing since the Black Sox scandal? Keeping these players out of the Hall of
Fame does not simply wipe out two decades of baseball. The steroid era
happened, like it or not. Plugging our ears, shutting our eyes and holding our
breath will not make that go away. If you go to the MLB record book, Barry
Bonds still holds the home run records. Mark McGwire still broke the
long-standing Roger Maris HR record. Not voting for these players doesn’t make history
simply disappear.

If I had a ballot (spoiler alert; I don’t), here’s
who would have appeared on my ballot this year:

Barry Bonds, Roger Clemens, Mark McGwire, Tim
Raines, Kenny Lofton, Mike Piazza, Edgar Martinez, Curt Schilling, Jeff Bagwell
and Craig Biggio. Under the current rules, you can’t vote for more than ten
players in one year. As I indicated before, I think that Raffy Palmerio and
Sammy Sosa deserve votes as well. Alan Trammell would probably get my vote too,
and I am right on the line as to whether I’d vote for Larry Walker. But those
first ten would have appeared on my ballot in 2013. Of those ten, two (Bonds
and McGwire) have been conclusively linked to PED use and Clemens has a lot of
evidence out there. Bagwell and Piazza have “suspicions” afloat that have less
evidence than my claim to have kissed Kate Upton last week. Biggio, Raines and
Lofton are speed/defense type guys who’ve never had a shred of suspicion cast
their way, at least as far as I’ve seen. Not one of these players was deemed by
the BBWAA as worthy of inclusion into the Hall of Fame at this time. Everyone
on the ballot this year ended up being punished by the sanctimonious nature of
the voters, whether they used PEDs or not. Biggio, Raines, Lofton…some holier
than thou voters couldn’t even be bothered to vote for the clean players,
because so many had to make a “statement” by sending in a blank ballot. I
suppose that if one says “I’m a smug, pompous SOB who bought into the steroid
era when it was taking place but now feel the need to retroactively punish
everyone who dared play baseball in the 1990’s so people will pay attention me”
is a statement, then mission accomplished.

Grantland’s Jonah Keri, far away my favorite
Canadian sportswriter, posted a great piece about the Hall voting that I agree
with 100%. If
you’re interested in the process and how it could (and should) be changed, I
highly recommend reading this entire article. I’m not going
to sit here and rehash all of Keri’s points, but I’m glad someone with a
national voice is pointing out the serious flaws in both the voters and the
voting process. Listen, I love the Hall of Fame. Cooperstown is a wonderful
little town that I visited with my parents and younger brothers back in high
school, and it was my all-time favorite family vacation. I want to take my kids
there someday, and I think every baseball fan would enjoy at least one trip to
the hallowed grounds at some point in their lives. But this raises a larger
point; the Hall is in danger. It lost over $2 million last year, and has lost
money in 8 of the last 10 years. The city’s economy revolves around the Hall,
and induction weekend is a big part of that economy. This year, there will be
no induction weekend. Astros, Expos, Yankees, Giants and Red Sox fans will not
descend on the small city in New York to pay homage to the heroes of their
youth. That doesn’t help the Hall, much the opposite. The selfishness of the
voters is making the Hall less relevant, not more, and that’s a concern.

This all brings us to the real impetus for this
article, which is the fact that Kenny Lofton garnered less than 5% of the vote
(he appeared on just 3.2% of ballots) and is thus removed from future Hall of
Fame ballots. Lofton was one of my favorite players growing up, and I truly
consider myself lucky to have watched him play in his prime. Having a front row
seat, whether at the sold-out Jake or glued to my TV set, to see Lofton’s
spectacular catches and overall effect on opposing pitchers once he reached
first base was a treat. He was a superb athlete who played at an elite level
for the better part of a decade, and was a more
productive player late in his career than most people give him credit for.
Watching him lay the bat down on home plate and stride confidently to first
base after a walk, knowing he’d be able to stretch that base on balls into at
least a double. Seeing him use the pad on the bullpen door in CF as a step on a
ladder like it was designed for him to rob a home run. I’ll admit that my
Lofton vote is a bit of a homer vote, but it’s not like I’m stumping for Andy
Allanson here. Lofton has a legitimate case as a Hall of Famer, and I’ll again
rely on Grantland’s Jonah Keri (as an independent observer) to provide the
explanation. Keri wrote two articles that touched on Lofton’s candidacy, and
I’ll cut and paste from them both here for your convenience:

Kenny
Lofton: Yes, seriously, that Kenny Lofton.
The well-traveled center fielder was a wildly underrated player throughout his
career for having Tim Raines starter kit skills during an era in which those
abilities were an afterthought. Lofton is one of four modern-era players with
1,500 or more runs scored who's not in the Hall (Rafael Palmeiro, Bagwell, and
yes, Raines are the others). He ranks 15th all time with 622 steals, swiping
those bags at an excellent success rate a shade under 80 percent. He hit
.299/.372/.423 lifetime, and played fantastic defense at a premium position in
center field, whether you prefer advanced stats or traditional measures (four Gold
Gloves). As with Raines, few monster seasons stand out. Instead, you have a
multi-year stretch of excellence, in Lofton's case the first three full seasons
of his career, which netted nearly seven wins per year (he hit an outrageous
.349/.412/.536 and stole 60 bases in just 112 games during the strike-shortened
1994 season). Lofton slots in nicely among the best center fielders of all
time, just a shade below Duke Snider and above the likes of Richie Ashburn and
Andre Dawson. He has no chance in hell of induction anytime soon. But he's got
my vote.

-----snip----

…starting with the one player who got the biggest screw job of all.

Kenny
Lofton (3.2 percent of the vote): Any player who receives
less than 5 percent of the vote gets kicked off the ballot. Not only did Lofton
warrant more time on the ballot, but he also had a legitimate case for
induction. As I wrote in a ballot breakdown, Lofton was one of the most
prolific base stealers of all time, an on-base machine who played superb
defense at a premium position in center field, had an early-career peak in
which he produced MVP-caliber numbers, and slots in just below Duke Snider
among all-time center fielders, ranking just a hair below average for center
fielders already in the Hall. Like Lou Whitaker and Kevin Brown before him,
Lofton's been chucked out of the running after just getting started.

If you’d like a more local
perspective, Bastain (who’s not a Cleveland fan, just the beat writer from
MLB), wrote a piece on his blog where he started
out against Kenny’s candidacy, but ended up convincing himself that he deserved
enshrinement after all. Lofton
was punished for merely playing in the steroid era, and probably also for his
less than friendly attitude to the media in general. If Lofton acted like Sean
Casey and provided writers with better soundbites, I have no doubt he’d have
garnered enough votes to at least appear on the 2014 ballot. One only need look
to the never-ending lovefest towards accused double murderer Ray Lewis in
Baltimore to see how friendly the media will treat a player who talks to them
and provides interesting copy. The Baltimore and national media virtually
ignored the issue while fawning over him after #52 announced his retirement,
and the “best linebacker in history” will slide right into a job with the
Worldwide Leader when his Ravens lose in the playoffs this year. But a guy like
Lofton, who didn’t fall all over himself to cater to the every demand of
sportswriters across the country, is punished for it.

I’ll even trot out the Mazeroski
argument here; if Bill Mazeroski, noted primarily for his defense, is in the
Hall of Fame then how can Kenny Lofton not be? Lofton was a great defender at
one of the most important positions in the game and was a FAR superior
offensive player to Mazeroski. Don’t believe me? Maz never posted an OPS of
higher than .747. 747! His career high in OPS+ was 97. If you’re not familiar with OPS+, it’s a stat
that is normalized so that 100 is league average. This isn’t meant to inflame
folks to march on Cooperstown in an effort to de-induct (is that a word?)
Mazeroski, only to point out that Lofton has a legitimate case on his defensive
credentials alone based on those who were inducted before him. I didn’t think
Lofton would be a first-ballot Hall of Famer (not that there should be a
distinction between first and second ballot guys, but whatever). I also didn’t
think he’d get less than 5% of the vote and fall off the ballot entirely. He
was a star in his day who has somehow become unappreciated after his
retirement, possibly because he bounced around the league towards the end of
his career and didn’t stay in one city for a significant period of time other
than Cleveland. It’s a shame, but I still feel grateful for having been able to
enjoy his exploits on the diamond for as long as I did.

Just to re-emphasize a point
here, I’m not looking for an argument or intense debate about whether PED users
should be admitted into the Hall of Fame. I’m not even looking to argue about
whether guys like Lofton or Raines or Jack Morris have the stats to grace the hallowed
halls. If you’re still with us here at this point of the article, I appreciate
your interest in my point of view on the subject, and I’m aware and appreciate
that your opinion may be 180 degrees from mine on the subject. The beauty of
the Hall debate is that it is subjective, and there’s no “right” way to
approach it. This article simply served to put my stream of consciousness on
the subject out there for all to see, and I hope that if you disagree that
we’re still friends. So with that out of the way, let’s look towards equipment
trucks, pitchers and catchers reporting and other signs that spring has
arrived, because believe it or not, opening day is less than three months away!

Sunday, January 06, 2013

Happy Swishmas, everyone! The Indians rang in the New
Year by making the most expensive free agent signing in the history of the club
official, introducing former Buckeye Nick Swisher at a press conference at
Progressive Field this past Thursday. Free agent starter Brett Myers was officially
signed on Friday to considerably less fanfare, and GM Chris Antonetti’s
offseason shopping list has most of its items crossed off. Young, high upside
pitching? Check (Trevor Bauer). Veteran starter? Check (Brett Myers).
Righthanded power bat at 1B? Check (Mark Reynolds). Power OF bat? Check (Nick
Swisher). Throw in guys with upside potential like Drew Stubbs and Scott Kazmir
and consider that proven winner Terry Francona is onboard to shepherd the flock
for the next four years, you just can’t help but feel like the Indians are
having one of the best offseasons in baseball to this point. While they’re not
going to be able to hang with a team like the Angels or Dodgers, who went out
and signed the most expensive hitter and pitcher on the free agent market,
Antonetti clearly identified and attacked specific weaknesses on the club’s
40-man roster. For a team and a fanbase that has become accustomed to quiet
offseasons, the winter of 2012-13 has been a revelation. The team that wins the
winter rarely ends up winning the World Series, but compared to the deafening
silence of the recent past, this year has been an awfully enjoyable experience.

The Swisher signing has been extensively covered by
pretty much everyone who writes about the Indians by now,
but my favorite piece was (unsurprisingly) penned by Anthony Castrovice for
MLB.com. Castro focuses on more than just the contract value and the
numbers on the field, and discusses what the signing means for the Indians
moving forward. Swisher seemed genuinely excited to be back “home” in Cleveland
during his press conference, showing off his trademark energy and enthusiastic
personality. While some have criticized the contract as too long and for much
money, the club had a ton of money coming off the books with the Hafner,
Sizemore and Lowe contracts expiring, and also freed up a nice chunk of change
with the Choo trade based on what he would have received in arbitration. Add to
that additional revenue from
the sale of STO to Fox Sports Ohio and the Indians went into this offseason
in the rare position of having a real surplus of dollars to spend in the free
agent market. Remember too that the overall MLB TV deal is going to start
giving each club another $25 million in revenue, and in a year or two that
Swisher deal could very well look like a bargain.

Irrespective of the final dollar amounts, what can
we reasonable expect out of Swisher on the field going forward? Francona has
already indicated that the switch-hitting outfielder will hit somewhere in the
middle of the lineup, which is a no-brainer when you look at the current roster
composition. When you look at Swisher’s career, it’s easy to see why the
Indians decided that he was worth the contract they offered him; Swisher has
appeared in 148 or more games for the last 7 straight seasons, and he posted an
OPS+ of 120 or more in each of those seasons save one. He’s hit more than 20
home runs in every season going back to 2005. Since his rookie of the year
season back in 2005, Swisher’s average season line is an impressive
.256/.361/.468 with 26 HR, 83 RBI and a 118 OPS+. He stays healthy and in the
lineup, and he’s a remarkable consistent hitter who will be a better defensive
RF than the man he’s replacing. He can also play 1B, which will make him much
more likely to hold value through the back end of the contract even if he can’t
hold onto his defensive chops in the OF. Is there still risk involved? Of
course there is. But when you look at the history of the player, the influx of
money from the TV deals and the glaring need that Swisher fills in the middle
of the lineup and in the outfield, it’s easy to see why the Indians inked the
Ohio native to the deal that they did.

After the Indians acquired Trevor Bauer to
strengthen their rotation for the next half-decade or so, there remained a
glaring need in the near term for at least one (preferably two or three)
effective arms. To that end the Indians signed veteran starter Brett Myers to a
one-year contract worth $7 million with a club option for a second year with a
raise to $8 million if the Indians decide to pick it up. To make room on the
40-man for Myers, the Indians (again) exposed Russ Canzler to waivers, and he
was again picked up by an AL East team, this time the Yankees. So for those of
you keeping score at home, Canzler has gone from the Indians to the Blue Jays
back to the Indians and now to the Yankees in less than 14 days. Anyway, Myers
will be returning to the rotation after spending all of last season in the
bullpen for both the Astros and White Sox. Normally, that would invite
questions about the durability of a player, but if you look at Myers’ career
he’s consistently been an innings-eater, having thrown over 175 innings in
every season he was in the rotation other than 2009. He put up a 3.79 ERA in
439 2/3 innings for Houston in 2010-2011, so it’s not like he’s years removed
from being an effective starter. His move to the bullpen was based more on
Houston’s specific team needs than anything else.

Expect Myers to slot into the middle of the rotation
where he can throw 180-220 innings and give the Indians lineup a chance to win
a bunch of ballgames. Myers velocity dropped from the mid-90’s in his prime to
the high 80’s in 2011, and to his credit Myers re-invented himself as a
pitcher. He relies much more on location that pure stuff now, and uses his
four-pitch mix to set up and outsmart hitters rather than trying to blow them
away. Better pitchers than Myers have succumbed to a loss in stuff and been
forced into an early retirement, but Myers responded to an absurdly high 17.8%
of his flyballs finding the seats in 2009 to a downright outstanding rate of
6.6% in 2010. If Myers can continue to locate his pitches and get hitters to
beat the ball into the ground (GO/AO ratio of 1.35 last year) he can be an
effective #3/4 guy and even a veteran presence that can mentor a guy like
Trevor Bauer. Bauer famously got in trouble at the MLB level last season by
trying to strike out too many hitters and not trusting his stuff to get outs on
balls in play. Myers just happens to be a guy who used to strike everyone out
and now gets outs on balls in play. Sounds like a match made in Heaven to me. Myers
does have some personal issues in his past, from confrontations with teammates
to the much more serious charges of domestic abuse involving his wife. But any
worries about Myers negatively affecting the clubhouse have to be at least
partially mitigated by the presence of bench coach Brad Mills. Mills was Myers’
manager in Houston, and if there were serious issues in the Astros clubhouse created
by Myers, I’d have to think Mills would have stepped up to Francona and
management to advise them against throwing $7 million at the guy. There are
other pitchers out there that would have been worth that kind of money (Marcum)
so it’s not as if Myers was the only option available to the Indians and they
had to sign him, warts and all. So until proven otherwise, I’m going to give Myers
the benefit of the doubt for his tenure in Cleveland, and hope he provides
veteran leadership to a staff that sorely lacked that component last season.

So this all begs the question…what exactly are the
Indians trying to do? GM Chris Antonetti has come out to say that Myers is
likely the last significant free agent in the budget this offseason, so other
than the usual slew of minor league contracts with invitations to Spring
Training we’re not likely to see any additions to the 40-man via free agency.
Early in this offseason, I advocated trading Choo, Chris Perez and Asdrubal
Cabrera in an attempt to jump-start the inevitable rebuilding process, and
listening to offers on Vinnie F. Pestano and Justin Masterson as well. The club
did of course deal Choo for Trevor Bauer and others, but rather than continue
to demolish/rebuild via trade, Antonetti used a significant chunk of change to
bring in a FA replacement for Choo and a badly needed arm. So are the Indians
done significantly altering the roster for one offseason? If so, it feels a
little like the club has reached the dreaded “in between” talent level; not
quite good enough to make the playoffs, not bad enough to just let the kids
play and trade for prospects. Pauly C. sent me an e-mail this past Thursday
comparing the Indians offseason this year to Oakland’s last season; trading
away established players for youngsters while simultaneously signing veterans
to replace the players they were trading away. The day after I got that e-mail
from Paul, Baseball
Prospectus published their transaction report on the Myers signing that
included this little tidbit:

Cleveland’s offseason strategy is beginning to
resemble Oakland’s from last winter. The
key difference is Oakland’s pitching quality and depth. The Indians are
hopingJustin MastersonorUbaldo Jimenezcan
lead the way, while some combination ofZach McAllister,Carlos Carrasco, andCorey Klubershore
up the back end. Yes,Trevor Baueris
around, and yes, Cleveland could add a veteran likeShaun Marcum. For now it’s hard to gamble on either scenario.
Likewise, you shouldn’t bet on Cleveland winning the division. This Indians
bunch should win more games than they did last year (68), however, and fans
have to be pleased to see some offseason additions.

The main takeaway here is that while the offseason
has been a solid one that has addressed two of the Indians main needs, the team
is far from complete. ESPN’s Buster Olney went through his offseason top-10
series, looking at the top 10 infield, outfield, lineup, rotation and bullpens
around baseball. The Indians were completely absent from Olney’s series. Even
the vaunted bullpen mafia, led by all-star closer Chris Perez and lights-out
setup man Vinnie Pestano, failed to rate even honorable mention status. As
currently constructed, this team is better than last year. But that doesn’t
mean they’re destined for the playoffs. Francisco Lindor and Trevor Bauer are
the only blue-chip prospects in the system. So while the rebuild of the roster
was given a great jump-start these past few weeks, it’s far from complete. Antonetti
should still be looking to move Asdrubal Cabrera for young pitching. He should
still be considering every offer that comes across the table for Chris Perez,
whether that offer is made during the offseason or closer to the 2013 trading
deadline. The team can still rebuild while making marginal improvements to the
roster from season to season, but they cannot get stuck in the purgatory of
winning between 75-85 games a year, every year. The Swisher signing will sell
some tickets regardless of what happens the rest of this offseason. But the
team can’t build for the long haul without acquiring more young, cost
controlled talent, particularly on the mound. The 5th overall pick
in this June’s draft will help, but that pick will need to be augmented by
prospects from outside the organization as well. The best route to acquire
those prospects is still dealing Cabrera and Perez.

MLB.com’s
Bernie Pleskoff put up an excellent piece on Indians relief prospect Trey Haley
earlier this week. Pleskoff is a former scout who has turned to writing,
and is a great follow on twitter. I’m not sure if Pleskoff was ever an Indians
fan, but he seems to tweet about Indians prospects fairly frequently and always
gives his thoughts on moves the club makes. Pleskoff responds to almost every
question he’s asked on twitter, so if you don’t already follow him I highly
recommend it. It’s great to have the impartial opinion of a guy who’s made a
living out of assessing talent on the baseball diamond. Pleskoff is high on
Haley, as the former 2nd round pick out of a Nacogdoches, TX high
school has an arm capable of touching triple digits out of the bullpen. He
compliments the plus-plus velocity with a hammer 12/6 curveball and a
developing slider and occasionally throws a changeup. Pleskoff called Haley’s
arm one of the best that he witnessed in the Arizona Fall League, and thinks
that while he has the raw talent to start that he’d work best as a closer in
The Show. There are only two things that concern me about Haley, and they go
hand in hand. He’s had a little trouble staying healthy (sports hernia last
year) and has had some command issues. If he can stay healthy and on the mound
though, his command should come around as there are no mechanical issues that
will keep him from throwing consistent strikes. Haley was my #19 prospect last
year, and will be at least a few spots higher than that in this spring’s
countdown.

It’s not exactly Indians related, but Ben
Lindbergh of Baseball Prospectus put together a very entertaining article
where he mined some of the deep, dark corners of the Internet for a ridiculous
trade offer from every team’s fanbase for the Marlins’ Giancarlo Stanton. There
are some pretty entertaining offers in there, especially the Yankees and Red
Sox fans that suggest including draft picks in the deals. I won’t spoil it for
you, but a fan of one MLB team is not interested in Stanton because, wait for
it, he hits righthanded. It’s alarming to see how many fans have no idea how to
even spell the names of some of their top prospects and apparently have no
access to google or baseball reference to determine the correct spelling. At
the very least it’s a fun and entertaining look at some of the less educated
baseball fans around the league. If nothing else it’s good for a laugh on a cold
Lazy Sunday with less than two months till Spring Training…